the buccinators

[thadjones1213]

I was checking out the buccinator definition and uses. This is one I found online.


The buccinator is a muscle in the cheek which joins the cheekbone and jawbone to the mouth, where it blends with the muscle of the upper and lower lips. A duct, or tube, leading from the parotid salivary gland runs through the buccinator muscle before opening into the mouth. The buccinator helps keep food in position between the teeth while chewing, and gives stiffness to the cheeks which prevents them from being bitten. It is also involved in smiling and blowing, the action from which it gets its name, as the word buccinator, or bucinator, means trumpeter in Latin.

If one blows through pursed lips so that the cheek muscle becomes puffed out, it is possible to feel the buccinator muscle with the fingers. As the face is symmetrical, there are two buccinators, one on each side. The buccinator is one of the muscles of mastication, so it is important in the process of eating, where it acts to press the cheeks and lips inward against the teeth. Working against the action of the tongue, which moves food out toward the cheeks, the buccinators tend to push food into place between the upper and lower sets of teeth, where it can be ground up by chewing.